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    Kitty League
    Kitty League
    Kitty League
    Ebook206 pages1 hour

    Kitty League

    By Joshua Maxwell and Kevin D. McCann

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    About this ebook

    Between 1903 and 1955, the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League better known as the Kitty League brought minor-league baseball to fans throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, and Indiana. Supporting teams with such colorful nicknames as the Hoppers, Oilers, Clothiers, Egyptians, and Miners, the league produced many great players, such as Tony Kubek, Chuck Tanner, and Don McMahon, who enjoyed solid major-league careers. It also produced future Hall of Famers Edd Roush and Red Schoendienst. The Kitty League also provided major-league veterans like Earl Browne, Hod Lisenbee, and Vito Tamulis the chance to keep playing the game they loved.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateApr 30, 2012
    ISBN9781439642399
    Kitty League
    Author

    Joshua Maxwell

    Joshua R. Maxwell is an independent documentary producer, researcher, and baseball enthusiast. After years of research, he is currently working on a film documentary about the Kitty League and is very passionate about local and regional history. Kevin D. McCann is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and served as chairman of its Minor League Committee. He has researched the league for 15 years and is the author of Jackson Diamonds: Professional Baseball in Jackson, Tennessee.

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      Book preview

      Kitty League - Joshua Maxwell

      McCann

      INTRODUCTION

      For 31 seasons, the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League—better known as the Kitty League—brought professional baseball to communities throughout western Kentucky and Tennessee, southern Illinois and Indiana, and southeast Missouri. Its name became synonymous with the minor leagues. As early as 1928, a New York sportswriter compared the Murderer’s Row Yankees after a terrible game to a weak-hitting Kitty League team in a bad slump. Comparing players of the 1950s to those in the 1980s, columnist Furman Bisher wrote, There were some power hitters among them and the pitching wasn’t Kitty League. St. Louis Cardinals manager and former Kitty League player Red Schoendienst, describing one umpire’s interpretation of the strike zone, remarked, Now that’s not a strike in any league, not even the Kitty League.

      Like the feline for which it was named, the Kitty League had many lives: 1903 to 1906, 1910 to 1914, 1916, 1922 to 1924, 1935 to 1942, and 1946 to 1955. Twenty-nine communities and cities hosted teams in Kentucky (Bowling Green, Central City, Dawson Springs, Fulton, Henderson, Hopkinsville, Madisonville, Mayfield, Owensboro, and Paducah), Illinois (Cairo, Danville, Harrisburg, Jacksonville, Mattoon-Charleston, and McLeansboro), Indiana (Evansville, Princeton, and Vincennes), and Tennessee (Clarksville, Dyersburg, Jackson, Lexington, Milan, Paris, Springfield, Trenton, and Union City).

      Fans of Class D leagues such as the Kitty had to bring large doses of patience and understanding with them to the ballpark. Pitchers tended to be wild as they struggled to command their pitches, resulting in lots of walks, hit batsmen, and wild pitches. Fielders made extraordinary plays one moment and threw the ball all over the diamond the next. It was a time when being the fan of a local team was very much a personal experience. One could purchase stock in the local baseball association for as little as $10 a share and have an ownership stake. Fans opened their hearts and homes to one or more players, who paid for room and board but became more like extended members of the family.

      With the passing of time and its players and fans, memories of the Kitty League are beginning to fade. It is our hope that this book will rekindle interest in each community’s baseball history and the part it played in our national pastime.

      DR. FRANK BASSETT. It was Frank Houston Bassett who worked to bring professional baseball to western Kentucky. A native of Stephensport, Kentucky, he was an associate partner in his brother’s Hopkinsville hardware business when he traveled throughout the region in January 1903 to solicit interest in a new league. On February 3, the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League was organized with the towns of Henderson, Hopkinsville, Madisonville, Owensboro, and Paducah, Kentucky, as well as Cairo, Illinois. After receiving his medical degree from the University of Nashville, Bassett returned to the league he founded and served as president from 1912 to 1914, 1916, 1922 to 1924, and 1935 to 1937. His determination—and often his personal finances—would see the Kitty League through three separate lives during his 10-year tenure. (Bettie Bassett Clark.)

      1

      STRIKE ONE

      EARLY SEASONS, 1903–1924

      Spanning 186 miles from its farthest cities, the KIT League started with a dream to bring professional baseball to Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Tennessee. There had been a league created seven years earlier, a short-lived independent circuit called the Pennyrile League, made up of teams in Henderson, Hopkinsville, Madisonville, and Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1896. These communities soon joined with Evansville and Washington, Indiana, to create the Kentucky-Indiana League, but it disbanded at the end of its first season.

      It was not long after the KIT’s inaugural season opened in 1903 that sportswriters began referring to it simply as the Kitty League. Just like the feline for which it was named, it would have several lives during its 31-year existence. Consistency was a goal the Kitty never attained during the 1903–1924 period. Four lives were spent, none lasting longer than five seasons: 1903 to 1906, 1910 to 1914, 1916, and 1922 to 1924. The first was defined by disorganization and infighting between league officials who threatened to tear it apart, yet it managed to survive for four seasons. Its second life from 1910 to 1914 was the most stable span and saw league founder Dr. Frank H. Bassett return as president. After attempting a comeback in 1916, it was six years before a fourth attempt to reorganize was made. It ended with a disputed second-half championship and enough hard feelings among the six clubs that the Kitty League would not return until 1935.

      Despite epidemics, world war, and economic depression, fans in the region enjoyed the game and continued resurrecting the league time and again after periods of inactivity. They were eager to root for their hometown teams, such as the Hopkinsville Hoppers, Paducah Indians, Vincennes Alices, Henderson Hens, and Cairo Egyptians, and future major leaguers like Charles Gabby Street, Frank Shaughnessy, Hub Perdue, Larry Doyle, Edd Roush, Ervin Brame, Hank DeBerry, Guy Bush, Ben Cantwell, and Jim Turner.

      1903 CAIRO EGYPTIANS. The Egyptians were the first Kitty League champions with a 67-41 record. The team played at Sportsman’s Park. Its big hitters were James Dummy Hughes (who was deaf) and Robert Wallace, who hit at least 17 home runs. Lewis Brockett won at least 18 games and would later pitch three seasons for the New York Highlanders in 1907, 1909, and 1911.

      1903 PADUCAH INDIANS. The Paddys finished the inaugural Kitty League season in fifth place with a record of 47-59. A year later, the team adopted the nickname Indians in recognition of the Native American chief

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